Bringing Them Together
by gisela.tinuelena
Summary: Ginny has lost Harry to Hermione and forged an unlikely friendship with Draco. Soon she finds herself falling for Draco; but her hopes are shattered when Draco tells her where his real affections lie. Ginny decides to play matchmaker for her friends.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Here's another one from me and my amazing co-writer Sobiya. Enjoy!

xx

It was a shame, thought Ginny, that the Slytherin and Gryffindor locker rooms had to be so close together.

Katie Bell and Blaise Zabini exchanged a hot stream of swear-laden insults, which ended when Ron came to her defense with a few choice phrases of his own and a decidedly rude hand gesture.

Harry pointed his derision at Draco. "And when you go back to being Pansy Parkinson's _lap dog--_" the phrase came pointedly from Harry's lips, referring to what he'd seen on the Hogwarts Express-- "you can whine to her about how a bunch of filthy little blood traitors who don't deserve to live beat the _hell _out of your pureblood elite today." With a bit of a swagger, he marched into his own locker room, his teammates swarming him, leaving Ginny and Draco alone.

"He's a bit of a--"

"Git," Draco snarled.

Ginny laughed nervously. "Yeah. Only when he's provoked, though. He's really a good guy." She searched his eyes.

Something in his stomach tightened. "I wish you'd stop trying to make us friends, Gin."

"You never know," she said cheerfully. "You and I became friends. Who saw that coming?"

Despite himself, he grinned. "I suppose you're right. But Potter and I--"

"I know. I just wish some of my other friends would accept you so we didn't have to hide the fact that _we_ get along."

"They probably think I'm out here calling you a blast-ended skank."

She giggled. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

He smirked.

"So, listen. Are you busy tomorrow afternoon?"

"I've got double Potions, and then I'm free."

"Come meet me at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, then. I've got a surprise for you."

Draco considered this. "Has it anything to do with Potter tied to a tree?"

Again, the sensation in his stomach.

Ginny laughed and socked him in the arm. "No, it doesn't have anything to do with that. It's much nicer."

He grinned. "Okay."

A slight blush stole over her cheeks. "Great. I'll see you tomorrow, then."  
"See you."


	2. Chapter 2

Draco strode out of the castle gate and walked down the steps toward the forest. He regretted walking out without a sweater as it was a bit chilly for April. The sun was shining high in the sky and Draco had to squint to see the lone figure standing in the distance, her long, ginger hair swaying freely in the breeze. Draco grinned and waved vaguely at her. He could barely make out the smile sent back at him from this distance.

_Now what's all this about?_ he wondered. He had received a note from Ginny, telling him to meet him at the edge of the forest. Apparently, there was a surprise for him.

Draco reached her and raised his eyebrow. "Well?"

Ginny was leaning against a tree, wearing a skirt too short, a shirt too tight and a thick scarf tied around her long neck. She smiled as he approached and stepped forward. Taking his hand in her gloved ones, she tipped her head toward the trees. "It's inside."

Draco frowned to show his displeasure but Ginny laughed and pulled on his hand.

"Come on," she said. "Be brave. I promise you'll have fun."

Draco smirked and followed her inside. "This is _so_ fun!" he teased in a girlish voice. Ginny laughed and slapped his arm.

"Shut up," she said, looking around, smiling. "It's nice."

Draco snorted and shook his head. _I should've known,_ he thought. _Quality time together with a friend, my arse. Unicorn turds!_

They sat down under the shade of a giant oak tree on a maroon-and-teal colored quilt. Ginny took a deep breath and Draco scratched his head and yawned.

It was hard to say how they had become friends, but it was apparent that they were close to each other and valued each other's company. Even though Draco always denied it, the two found this relationship very thrilling, especially as it was a well-kept secret. But to Ginny, it was more than a friendship-- or so she hoped.

She moved closer to Draco and watched him pull out a flower from the grass. She smiled and pushed her hair behind her ear, expecting to be presented with the flower, but Draco took no notice of her and her closeness. His thoughts seemed far away as he systematically plucked off the petals and flicked them away on the quilt.

Ginny's smile faded as she saw the naked stem soar through the air and fall at their feet. She cleared her throat loudly and didn't meet Draco's eyes when he looked at her. He stared for a few moment before it dawned on him why she looked so moody. He became very uneasy, as he always did when the opposite sex expected something from him that he had no idea how to give. He just sat there feeling embarrassed.

Ginny looked at him and saw the blush rising on his face. It was endearing and Ginny couldn't help but smile. She turned to him and sat up, taking off her gloves. Draco looked up at her when she took his hand in hers and raised it to touch it with her lips.

This was extremely unexpected, but not surprising. Now he knew what the "surprise" was.

Draco watched resignedly as Ginny kissed his hand. She slowly raised her intense brown eyes, laden with passionate lust, to his and smiled. Draco couldn't bring himself to smile back.

"Is this okay?" she asked shyly.

_No... just say no, come on, it's an easy word. No!_ But Draco simply blinked and gulped and Ginny took that as a yes.

She placed his palm flat against her cheek and trailed it down her smooth jaw to her neck, to her collarbone, down to her right breast. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Draco stared at his hand, which jerked slightly, and felt nothing but the lump under his hand. Nothing whatsoever. He felt suddenly numb all over.

Ginny was breathing through her mouth now and rubbing his hand over her breast. Draco waited for her to open her eyes and then suddenly he was pushed on the flat of his back, Ginny straddling his hip, her short skirt riding up to reveal more flesh. She took his alarmed expression for shocked approval, smiled seductively, and started unbuttoning her shirt. Draco looked up beyond the mass of ginger hair and saw a vulture fly over the trees in the cloudless blue sky. His vision was obscured as the white shirt fell over his eyes.

He had barely pulled the shirt off his face when it was again covered by Ginny's hair as she leaned down to kiss him fiercely. There was a lot of tongue and clashing teeth and Draco tried to locate the bird in the sky, but it was gone. Ginny moaned into his mouth and he almost gagged.

She sat back, her lips swollen and pink, and placed Draco's hand on her thigh and squeezed it, indicating that she wanted to be touched. Draco's hand trembled and he made his hand move back and forth over her skin, trying to imitate a caress. Ginny seemed satisfied and smiled, running both her hands over his torso and chest.

As she undid the top two buttons, Draco closed his eyes. He tried to focus on the various sounds in the forest. When he felt hot breath on his neck, he focused on the twittering of the birds. As he felt a wet kiss on his neck, he listened for the chirping of the squirrels. As he felt a tongue on the shell of his ear, he concentrated on the creaking of the branches, the rustling of the leaves, and the humming of the wind.

Ginny moved lower, sucked at his collarbone, and pushed a hand into his blond locks. She lifted Draco's hand higher on her thigh and pushed it under her skirt. She slowly started to move back and forth, grinding her hips down, her eyes trained on his face. Draco kept his eyes shut tight and tried to ignore where his hand was traveling. He licked his dry lips and there was a gasp.

"Oh!" she moaned and attacked his lips again.

_Not again,_ he groaned inwardly.

He watched the surroundings as Ginny humped and slobbered all over him.

"Oh yes... Draco!" she moaned and inserted her tongue back into his mouth.

Draco looked over her shoulder at the sunlight peeping in through the leaves and the moss growing on tree trunks. He ignored the moans and watched the birds strutting on the branches and the flowers growing at the base of trees. Ginny was crushing his mouth and her heavy weight was becoming suffocating.

_  
So this is how I will die-- suffocated by a sexually depraved Gryffindor. _He was not pleased with the thought.

He tried to think of something else, as Ginny pushed his hand further between her legs. The green leaves, the grass, the green ivy. He could feel the damp warmth on the silky underpants brushing against his hand.

_Everything's so green. Too green. _

_Like a pair of eyes... _

With a strangled cry, Draco jerked his hand back and pushed Ginny off of himself, scrambling away. He was shaking and taking deep breaths to calm himself. He had _not_ just pictured that. No way.

Ginny was staring at him, shocked and hurt. She gathered her shirt and put it on, fumbling with the buttons.

"W-what happened?" she asked, peering at him.

Draco shook his head and folded his arms, not meeting her eyes. He was glad it was over, and shuddered thinking of it now. He felt nauseous and tired. Ginny moved closer to him.

"I thought you were okay with it," she said cautiously.

Draco touched the quilt and pretended to inspect the intricately sewn work on it. Ginny touched his arm and he jumped. She looked worried now, and Draco didn't blame her.

"What is wrong?" Ginny pressed.

_Everything, _thought Draco, shaking his head. _So green… so wrong._

Ginny waited for an answer silently. He knew the time had come to either put the truth out in the open, or jeopardize the friendship he had formed wit Ginny.

"I'm in love," he said, looking into her eyes.

Ginny's eyes went wide as understanding dawned upon her. The disappointment was clear as she tried to look nonchalant.

"Oh, I see," she said quietly, nodding slowly and wrapping her scarf around her shoulders. Draco felt guilty. He knew their friendship meant much more to her than she let on.

"So," she smiled weakly. "Who is it? Do I know her?"

_Her? _Draco sighed. _'This is going to be harder than I imagined._

_  
_He shook his head and then thought it over.

"You do," he said, looking down and rocking back and forth on his knees.

Ginny stayed quiet and Draco chanced a look at her. She was smiling.

"Is it Hermione?" she asked quietly, trying to hide the resentment in her voice.

Draco closed his eyes in frustration and didn't speak. Ginny laughed dryly.

"I don't believe this." She shook her head, looking down. "Bested by Hermione yet again."

Draco opened his gray eyes and stared hard at her. _Enough, _he thought, his heart beginning to race for the first time that afternoon. _Time to spill._

"It's not a girl," he spoke in a surprisingly steady voice. Ginny's head snapped up. Her eyes went round and her jaw dropped open. It was almost comical.

Draco felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his chest; he felt like he could float away any moment. He took a deep breath as a sense of relief washed over him. _It's good to confess,_ he realized, _I should do it more often._

_  
_But Ginny was still ogling at him. Draco grinned at her.

"Harry?" she whispered, disbelievingly.

And just like that, all the breath was taken away from him. A pair of invisible iron fists closed around his windpipe and his eyes started to burn. He felt an insane urge to scream, but he would not break down in front of Ginny.

_The name, the name, did she have to say the name? _It stabbed him like a dagger at the heart.

He sucked in his lower lip and looked away from Ginny's stunned face, blinking his eyes furiously.

Ginny sat frozen, staring down at the fallen petals on the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

Ginny marched through the portrait hole, wrapped tightly in the quilt, and flung herself moodily into an armchair.

Hermione, immediately noticing the look on her friend's face, shut her book and pulled Harry's hand from its leisure of playing with her hair. Tentatively, she approached.

"Gin? What's the matter?"

She sighed. "Nothing."

"It's not nothing," Hermione pressed. Then, with a smile, "All you Weasleys are the same. You wear your hearts on your sleeves."

The remark was met with a fiery glare. "Is that why you decided to break my brother's?"

"I thought we were over this," Hermione said quietly. "I thought that you were okay with Harry and I being together."

"I'm not as selfish as you," came the biting reply. "It's not just me I care about. Sure, I'd wanted to date Harry since I was ten. So what? No big deal." If nothing else, Draco had taught her a good deal of sarcasm.

"Ginny--"

"But my brother, bless him, never shut up about you after his first year at Hogwarts. Sometimes I thought if I had to hear your name one more time I'd be sick." She looked up at Hermione, who looked quite thunderstruck.

"Obviously 'us Weasleys' aren't important in the grand scheme of things," Ginny spat, getting to her feet. "I think I'll just go to bed."

Hermione watched helplessly as she strode away and marched up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. She ambled back to the loveseat and rested her head on Harry's shoulder.

"I think I finally see what Ron means about girls being impossible," she murmured, relaxing into Harry's form as he put an arm around her.

He laughed.

xx

Ginny's dormitory was empty when she entered.

_Good_, she thought, tearing off the clothes that were supposed to seduce Draco, replacing them with tattered old flannel pajamas, and crawling into bed.

Angrily, she drew the curtains of her bed shut in case any of her roommates came back, and pulled the duvet over herself. She stared into the darkness and thought.

The truth was, she really _had_ gotten over Harry-- mostly. She still liked him, that was for sure-- she didn't think she'd ever fully get over him. How do you get over your first love? Her pulse still quickened a little bit when she saw him. But she _was_ ready to be with other guys. What hurt was the fact that it was Hermione who'd taken him away. Hermione, who she considered to be her best friend, though she'd never been so sentimental as to tell her such a thing.

But after thinking about it, she realized that Hermione really wasn't her best friend anymore. No best friend would have done what she did.

None of the giggling girls she shared a room with were best-friend material. They were all clones of Lavender Brown, gossips and drama queens; and she was pretty sure Melinda Collins was publicly making out with her boyfriend at this very moment, causing plenty of people to flee to their rooms or dry-heave.

Then she thought of Draco. He'd helped her with her Potions homework, was there for her when she missed Harry and needed a shoulder to cry on, kept Crabbe from obliterating her during Quidditch, and told her where Trelawney kept her sherry, just incase she was ever desperate for a drop.

Which she certainly was now. Her brain was coming to the conclusion that Draco Malfoy was her best friend, and she suddenly was highly embarrassed that she'd tried to shag him in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.

And then there was the whole matter of him being in love with Harry. Every time she thought of it, she wondered if she'd made the whole thing up in her head. But no, she remembered every word he'd said, and the look in his eyes as he'd said it. He had been telling the absolute truth.

She was still tempted to break into Snape's stores and steal some Veritaserum to find out for sure. _Besides, _she thought with a smirk, _it would be hilarious to ask him exactly what he wants to do with Harry..._

Laughing to herself, she turned over and snuggled into her pillow. She'd talk to him about it the next chance she got.


	4. Chapter 4

Ginny hung back after Defense Against the Dark Arts the next day, hoping to snag Draco before class.

He was the picture of carefree style as he strolled into the room in tailored robes, his bookbag slung over his arm, eyes set straight ahead.

"No short skirt today?" he said coolly. "You might get your "E" in Potions if you wore it for Slughorn."

"How long did it take you to do your hair this morning?" came Ginny's blithe retort. "Hired Zabini to be your stylist, have you?"

He grinned. "Good to see you too."

"I'm sorry about yesterday."  
He waved a hand about airily. "No big deal. I know it can be hard to resist my dapper good looks."

Ginny laughed, but she was using every ounce of willpower she possessed to not tackle him again. "I just wanted to ask you something--"

_Here it comes. _"What?"

"Were you-- serious about what you said yesterday?" She glanced around to make sure no one else had entered the classroom yet. "About--" she dropped her voice to a whisper-- "about Harry?"

_Fuck-all, why did I ever open my big mouth._ "Yes."

"I just wanted to make sure I didn't, you know, hit my head on a rock and dream the whole thing up."

"Yeah."

"You're going to tell me more about this later."

Despite himself, Draco felt a smile spread across his face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. You can't tell me something like that, Draco Malfoy, and not expect me to want the juicy details. I may not be Lavender Brown--"

"Thank Merlin."

"--but I am curious sometimes." She paused. "And obviously you're a little-- _curious--_ too."

"Sod off," he said, but he was grinning.

"Meet me at the edge of the forest tonight then," she said, gathering her books.

"No humping this time?"

"No humping," she said, laughing, passing a very confused Hannah Abbott.


End file.
